Choose a Safe Password
- Michael Rothkopf
- Dec 10, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 28, 2020
Choosing a safe password is always a hard thing.
So, we have some tips on how to choose a great password. 1. Don't use names.
What we mean is, don't use stuff like "bob123" or "baxterthedog".
Why?
Names are very easily guessable. Imagine a hacker knows you have a dog named Max. Your password is "max123". The problem with this is that the hacker can use a "brute-force" attack to figure out passwords that they know a part of.
A brute force attack uses a database of password types. They might have "<dog name> + 123" in their database, which would return "max123". It would then send a request to the website containing data about the username and password. The website would return either False, meaning that you got the password wrong, or it would return a code 200, meaning that it was successful. If it was successful, the hacker will be notified of the password and they can now sign into your account.
2. Don't use stuff like "password".
What we mean is, don't use stuff like "password" or "facebook".
Why?
There is something called the Rainbow Tables. These are a list of commonly used passwords that hackers use to find your code. If you use a common password, it is most likely in the rainbow tables. If they breach the website security, they can access your password as a hash. A hash is a mathematically irreversible function that returns a jumbled up string of text and numbers generated from your password. If you have a common password, they put the hash into the rainbow tables, and if it's there, they know the password. Just like that.
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